Close the Doors of Youth Prisons

It’s been a long year of fear and worry since last Mother’s Day. I spent that day agonizing about my daughter. She’s locked inside the California Youth Authority, or CYA, one of the most dangerous kid prisons in the nation. She’s been there for a year and a half. For a year and a half, I haven’t slept through the night, knowing that she isn’t safe.

Two years ago my daughter was jumped on the street and badly beaten. She was terrified for her life. There was no help for her, and she was never the same after the attack. Two months later she got into a fight and really hurt her assailant.

As a parent, I knew that I needed to get my daughter help. The juvenile justice system promised rehabilitation and restoration -- for my daughter and our community. But that’s not what happened. Instead, she was sent to the CYA.

And since then, my daughter has changed. When she went in she was a warm but confused girl of 17. Now she’s a hardened young woman, untrusting and fearful. And it’s no wonder after all she’s been through in the CYA. I’m more scared than ever.

But change is coming to the CYA. As news of the prison’s abuse and violence has made waves across the nation, the CYA is expected to release its long-awaited reform plan later this month. As a mother, I know those reforms can’t come soon enough. That’s because while I’ve waited and worried, three young men have died in the CYA and guards were caught on videotape viciously beating prone young people. This kind of abuse isn’t the exception. It’s the rule.

These youth prisons are broken, plain and simple: The staff is apathetic or abusive, the facilities are crumbling, and inside them, a culture of fear, violence and alienation only grows stronger by the year. Dressing them up is not going to work. Prettying them is not going to make Californians safer or our kids healthier.

The only thing that’s going to work is closing these prisons down and replacing them with real rehabilitation. Californians know that. The governor knows that. The Legislature knows that. The families of kids in the CYA sure know that. It’s time to shut down CYA prisons.

There is a better way. How do you rehabilitate a young person in trouble? Not with beatings. Not with sexual assault. Not with solitary confinement for months at a time. That kind of treatment just perpetuates the cycle of abuse. It means that nine out of 10 kids get in trouble again after their release from the CYA. Rehabilitation means holding kids accountable and giving them an opportunity to turn their lives around.

And rehabilitation just works better. It’s less expensive, and it has a proven track record. Some states have closed their kid prisons and replaced them with small-scale rehab centers staffed by teachers and counselors, not prison guards. In Missouri, which has such a program, the recidivism rate is 25%. In California, nine of 10 kids return.

This new plan won’t be worth the paper it’s written on unless it closes these brutal youth prisons and starts moving California forward.

California can move out of the dark ages of juvenile justice. And I, for one, won’t give up until the last kid prison is closed and Mother’s Day can be a celebration for all families.

Deborah Carlos is a leader in Books Not Bars, the statewide campaign to overhaul the California Youth Authority.